After Indore, patients allege rat bites at Jabalpur medical college; probe launched

Three people, including two patients, have been allegedly bitten by rats at a government medical college hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, just two weeks after two infants died after rat bites at a State-run hospital in Indore.

According to officials, the incident at the psychiatry ward of Jabalpur’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College Hospital where two patients and an attendant were bitten by rats on Monday (September 15, 2025) night, prompted an internal inquiry by the hospital administration.

Jabalpur Collector Raghvendra Singh told The Hindu that the district administration has issued notices to hospital authorities, seeking a status report on the incident within three days. 

“The report will also be sent to higher authorities and any action will be initiated based on the findings,” Mr. Singh said.

This comes at a time when the State Government is already facing severe criticism and scrutiny over hygiene concerns at public medical facilities since the Indore incident where rats bit two newborn girls, gnawing off four fingers of one of them.

Earlier, the Government submitted a status report, denying that the deaths were caused by rat bites, in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which had taken a suo moto cognisance of the matter. The Government and the hospital administration have claimed that the children died of their existing illness and organ anomalies and have taken departmental action against multiple doctors and nursing staff. 

Mr. Singh said that a three-member panel has been formed by the hospital administration and a notice has also been issued to a private firm, responsible for pest and rodent control at the hospital. The panel is led by the hospital superintendent. 

“During an inspection, the hospital administration found arrangements for rodent control in place but still a notice has been issued to the private company and some ward incharges,” he said.  

Dr. Navneet Saxena, dean of the Jabalpur medical college, said that two discharged patients and one of their attendants have complained of rat bites.

“I have sought a detailed report from the superintendent about what action has been taken. Action will be taken against anyone, including the outsourced agencies, who is found responsible for this,” he said. 

Another doctor at the hospital, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said that some patients had complained about rats over the weekend but “the internal probe has found out that some staff members and doctors did not pay attention to them”.

Jagdish Nehra, who had brought his mother for treatment from Gotegaon in Narsinghpur district, said that rats bit him and his mother on the intervening night of Monday (September 15, 2025) and Tuesday (September 16, 2025). 

“I was sleeping on the floor next to my mother’s bed when a rat bit me around 3 a.m. It also bit my mother,” he told reporters. 

The psychiatry ward is currently operating out a temporary building due to renovation work at the hospital.